Week 1.

[azumods]

WEEK 1. As Cynthia had promised, the sun does indeed rise the next morning. Whether you slept or not (and sleeping inside the Pokémon Center you were in before seems totally fine by the attendant), it seems Cynthia kept her word; she left sometime shortly before sunrise, and you haven't been bothered by Team Galactic and those that work for it in the interim. It isn't advisable to return to the headquarters building, however. At least not for the time being. However, a new day does dawn, and with it comes the knowledge that you're in an unfamiliar city, completely on your own. There are several things to be done before you can leave: gathering supplies and provisions, finding maps, obtaining new clothes... Of course, your new "companions" are still with you, and they don't seem willing to leave your side; they'll follow you dutifully, but they still seem...wrong, horribly so, and it doesn't seem to be wearing off. Maybe if you work with them a little...? Try to talk to them, train them, teach them to do things... Who knows? It might do them some good. CURRENT LOCATION: VEILSTONE CITY POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week one of Azume; feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget that a write-up is due this weekend! Feel free to investigate the city as you see fit this week; we ask only that you try to stagger investigations and be mindful of what's already been checked. If you wish to investigate, notify the mods in your comment subject for your top-level and we'll get on it as soon as possible!]

Comments

[perfectselfie]

[It's a matter of memorization and practice. Aya works really hard at both of them.

The last chorus is where the real meaning of the song is - "Now and always, thank you."]

[perfectselfie]

I'm not one hundred percent sure, but it's worth a shot.

[perfectselfie]

Around friends, yes. Though I live in a big city, so there are usually a lot of people around.

[ventulus]

No, it's not frosting. It's this cold dessert treat you eat on hot days.

...I think I'll need to get you to a place that has them or get one for you. I can't just let you continue to miss out on things like this.

[ This will not stand, okay. He has to make this happen! ]

[enjoymyatelier]

[...sigh, alright.

Well, he'll head over to the warehouse yard to the left of the main building, then. He's not sure if anyone was careless enough to drop one of their key cards, but mmmmaybe he'll find something else?]

partially closed, but it's just one part

[enjoymyatelier]

[Thursday comes with Kayneth wondering where the fuck you go to get a nice breakfast in this town.

Oh, sure, he hasn't been starving, but he's sharing some of that nonperishable food with his Frillish and his Murkrow on one of the benches in the Pokemon Center in the morning with a vague look of discontent.]

What I wouldn't give for a nice plate of sausages.

[...so you know what, maybe he should just go to the Department Store to see if he should... pick up cooking implements... and learn how to cook...

...he's too posh for this.]

[Closed to Shirou and Rin]

[You know... he should probably address this with the other two at some point. Admittedly, he wasn't as sure about Shirou Kotomine as he was about Tohsaka, but like. A priest with combat training who just happened to have the same family name as the Fourth Holy Grail War's administrator? Yeah. Like. He'd put a few bucks on it.

So he hands his Murkrow two letters, both reading the same thing:]

Meet me at the meteor craters at the south of town. We need to discuss something.
- Lord El-Melloi

[He then gives her a description of who she should be looking for, and then heads down to the craters to wait.]

[enjoymyatelier]

Well, that's part of what I'd like to test, honestly. If she doesn't manage to find you based purely on facial recognition, we'll try it again with a reminder, I think.

[kininaru]

Well, if we're going to be partners, I would certainly want to make sure I'm giving him the best name that I can! I mean, something like that, you take it with you wherever you go, so I can't just give him the first name that comes to mind, but even so, I'd rather do it sooner than later, since I can't just keep calling my poor new friend "he" or "him"...b-but I'm certain you understand!

[ She mulls that over, though, a fair bit. Something with meaning... ]

Maybe what I need is a bit of inspiration...ah, not to say that I mean to be a copycat, of course, but, something that jumps right out!

[eudaimonikos]

This is a Technical Machine. You're supposed to "use them on Pokemon" to teach them new abilities.

[He stops shoving the disc at Purrloin to look up at Eustace, spinning it in his hands.]

I think how you're supposed to use them is one of those things that was such common knowledge, no one wrote it down.

[enjoymyatelier]

Yes, that’s sort of the issue, isn’t it? I get the impression most of the actual issues we’ll be dealing with are other trainers, so I feel like it’s better to do that.

I’d be willing to battle if you need it, since I want to get used to the whole thing.

city

[niceoppai]

I guess we don't have to worry about them getting too carried away.

store

[niceoppai]

Are you dressing yours up, too?

[Lemonade, for her part, still hasn't moved to take that big yellow hat off.]

Must be good to make them feel like individuals.

[niceoppai]

Whoa! I didn't expect them to actually do it.

[niceoppai]

That's true enough. Even if we are kind of in overload, and surrounded by a creepy dead cult besides.

[niceoppai]

Hopefully not too much of a while.

[eudaimonikos]

No...

[He tilts his head as Purrloin deals another mild blow.]

It is a little pathetic, isn't it? I don’t know what I expected.

[eudaimonikos]

[He nods in agreement.]

Time usually isn't much to me one way or another, but I was busy. The one time in the past couple centuries that I’m really on the clock...

[radiantflame]

Indeed. I don't think we're in any danger, but it never hurts to be prepared.

[enjoymyatelier]

[will he ever live that down, signs point to no]

It’s nothing too strenuous, I hope- I’m training my Murkrow to serve as a messenger, so I’m asking various people if they’d mind if I had her fly a letter to them at some point in the near future.

[semistableman]

[Come Thursday, Bucky can be found at the gym, using a punching bag. Despite just having the one arm, he seems to be having a great time, if the punch-kick combos he's doing are any indication. To anyone familiar with what a sniper is, the fact that he's attacking the punching bag like a kickboxer is probably more than a little weird, but Bucky looks like he's lost in his own world, his skiddo standing some distance away, watching him blankly.

Come the evening, he can be found at the outskirts of town, having set up a fire pit in the grass, where he's rigged up a pot over the fire, and is busy cooking away at it. From the pan full of vegetables and rice, it looks like he's attempting some sort of stir fry or stew. He's also clearly making way more than he could possibly eat on his own.]

[discutio]

[Things were going about as well as they could be, in an emotionally deadened world with no immediate escape and a highly uncertain future. Ignis kind of wished he could even remotely say this was the worst he'd ever seen. Even so, it was right back to business as usual; they'd been here long enough and even gotten a fair bit of information, so he estimated they wouldn't remain in town for much longer. Today was mostly dedicated to checking over his supplies, walking with his Absol in the direction of the Department Store, and...]

[--and if Ignis didn't quite literally stake his life on his hearing, he might have thought he was imagining things, because he could swear he was hearing the sound of a small bell ringing. No footsteps, so it couldn't be something one of the others was wearing--besides that, the rhythm of it was too slow to match the stride of either human or Pokemon. Ring, pause. Ring, pause. Almost like the pace of a metronome.]

[...So much for today's immediate plans. Time to go looking for the source of that noise instead.]

[A little closer to sunset found him back at the Pokemon Center, with Absol and the culprit from earlier sitting on the larger Pokemon's head. It would probably have been a charming sight, were they not both equally disinterested. Their newfound trainer was keeping busy by triple or quadruple-checking his equipment, starting to look as if he was lost in thought and attempting to keep himself busy.]

[enjoymyatelier]

Yes, it is. Though... even if I’m learning quite a bit about them, I feel like I’m coming away with more questions than answers.

Not that that’s entirely a bad thing, I suppose. If there were no unknowns left to pursue, the world would be a horrendously dull place.

[hesychast]

[ Quietly: ]

Yes, of course. [ After a pause he smiles again, back to the soft, calm intonation he had before. ]

We must simply press forward and right what is wrong, no matter how difficult that may be. 

[hesychast]

[ A nod. ]

Something vibrant to draw their attention then... [ Seems he's not opposed to getting his hands dirty either, as he readily sifts through some of the rocks. There's nothing really exciting here, but he does manage to find one that's stained bright red due to clay. ]

Starting with one for each of them seems best.

evening

[discutio]

[As much as he really wasn't too eager to be out at night without shelter for too long...well. Some things were harder to ignore and harder to resist. It was a little surreal to have someone else be cooking in the middle of nowhere for once, but just add that to the list of absurdly surreal things he'd dealt with these past days.]

Something smells quite charming. What are you making?